This book is intended to help the counselor learn to work with terminal patients. The first part presents historical and cultural attitudes toward death and dying. Fear of death, the role of religion, and common myths about terminal cancer patients are discussed. The second part deals with care and treatment of terminal patients. The significance…

The assessment process can be integrated with treatment and evaluation for helping teenage suicide attempters and families in short term psychiatric hospitalization programs. The method is an extremely efficient way for the therapist to work within a given time constraint. During family assessment sufficient information can be gathered to…

The safe and effective use of medication is a concern for both older women patients and older women as caregivers. In 1989, twice as many antidepressants were prescribed for women as for men, and older women are more likely to have such drugs prescribed for them. According to studies, older women who live alone have the highest use of both…

The present study explored a method of altering the reinforcing properties of the verbal event good in chronic, process, nonparanoid schizophrenics. When good was repeatedly paired with the termination of censure in the reaction time task, it became an effective reinforcer on a subsequent verbal conditioning task. (Author)

This study evaluated the representativeness of eight personality prototypes among alcoholic patients, prison inmates, general psychiatric patients, and normals. Classification hit rates ranged from 25.0 percent for a college student group to 53.6 percent for male prison inmates. These figures were substantially greater than chance. Two profiles…

Four professional observers watched videotapes of the behavior of ex-mental patients (N=20 each). Their recordings showed that the observers were sensitive to any atypical behavior on the part of patients with whom they were familiar. They were equally objective in their observation of behavior of unfamiliar patients. (SE)

This study attempted to determine differences between patients who relapse and those who do not in both hospital and day-care settings. Subjects were 142 adult psychiatric patients. Three groups of measures were used: one based on professional evaluation, one based on self-report, and one based on relative report. (Author)

This study examined several explicit and implicit assertions in Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places" (AA 521 951), as well as methodological and logical shortcomings and interpretations contrary to those presented. (Author/RK)

The court held in Kaimowitz v. Department of Mental Health that "involuntarily detained mental patients cannot give informed and adequate consent to experimental psychosurgical procedures on the brain." This note argues that the present theory of informed consent is inadequate for such cases and proposes a new theory. (JT)

This article studied the relative and combined effectiveness of role playing and monetary incentives to increase the social interaction and responsiveness of chronic male psychiatric patients. Trend analyses of ward data and experimental findings consistently indicated significant positive changes at posttreatment for only those groups receiving…

Masculine bias is present not only in the attitudes of workers toward others in the health field but also in the treatment of patients. (Author)

For mental patients indiscriminately "dumped" on the community without adequate aftercare supports, the results for both them and their families can be cruel, if not disastrous. (Editor)

Two current evaluation projects of the Family Nurse Practitioner Training Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compare the utilization or quality of services provided by graduates practicing in different care settings. Clinical trial studies are essential first steps in assessing an innovation in health care delivery. (EA)

The paper explores ways that families choose a doctor for their child and offers guidelines for physician selection especially for parents with children who have learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders. Results of a survey of parents are reported indicating that parents used an average of only 1.2 sources of information in identifying…

A sample of nurses (N=183) enrolled in a School of Nursing's master degree program was randomly assigned to read one of six vignettes about a patient who differed only in terms of diagnosis and lifestyle. Possible diagnoses were Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), AIDS acquired by a hemophiliac through blood therapy, and leukemia; possible…